[Libertarianize the GOP]

Great Analysis. FYI

[CommiesOut]

"Some in the Agency love to talk about this, because it moves the conversation away from the real issues"

Necessity of fear, camouflage, blahblah...
Sounds familiar.

[malarski]

Most Muslims in the Middle East probably admire the creative genius—at least the creative technical genius—of the West. They admire, even if they can't or choose not to emulate, many of the Western habits—individual initiative, personal discipline, civic responsibility, personal and corporate honesty—connected to this technical creativity

Yeah, and they actually never lived in the West I presume.

[Aaron_A]

Reuel Marc Gerecht

I saw this dude on a Sunday talkshow soon after 9/11 - he was by far the only person who seemed to know what he was talking about. I haven't seen much of him since.

[LiberteeBell]

The CIA probably doesn't have a single truly qualified Arabic-speaking officer of Middle Eastern background who can play a believable Muslim fundamentalist who would volunteer to spend years of his life with shitty food and no women in the mountains of Afghanistan. For Christ's sake, most case officers live in the suburbs of Virginia. We don't do that kind of thing.

So, the USSR was heaven on earth during the Cold War? Oh, it must have been the "women" thing that kept those "case officers" working then. Sheesh, this sounds like if you sign up for the CIA, you can expect to live comfortably in the 'burbs and never have to get your hands dirty.

[The Great Satan]

Terrific interview. Unfortunately, the portrait of today's CIA -- a bunch of lard-ass, do-nothing time servers, waiting for their retirement to kick in -- rings all too true. That's probably a pretty good description of the FBI, too, come to think of it.